


Ebb Tide

by aderyn



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Romance, a rose is a rose is a catalyst, and murder, love tedious love, vicious motivators
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-05
Updated: 2013-07-05
Packaged: 2017-12-17 19:32:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/871192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aderyn/pseuds/aderyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Love tedious love motivates like the thorn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ebb Tide

_“Now I know that good is cause of love and that which is good is defined by knowledge.” –Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose_

 

Is the name of a rose. That is so purple it might be the pupil of an eye. In the garden of a woman Sherlock suspects has murdered her girlfriend’s lover, because love tedious love motivates like the thorn.

“These are … interesting,” John’s saying, in the green after Sherlock’s questions.

“Ebb Tide,” she says, hefts the shears.

Elise (her name is) slips out, pulls a hand through the (glorious silk John’s thinking despite everything) of her hair, clips two on their stems and hands them over.

Her mouth is a straight lane.

“I didn’t kill her,” she says to Sherlock.

“You,” she says to John, “should take him home.”

Winks.

*******

Sherlock is never wrong. The flat smells like Assam and clove and low tide. Sherlock is never wrong. The flat smells like the ink-blackberry of the rose. John was thinking about her hair. John was thinking _about her hair._ John’s adding a drop to the vase. John’s inhaling the cool breath of the bloom …

Sherlock is wrong.

*******

Elise smiles from the window.

Her girlfriend’s just come back from Ireland.

Sherlock has put the lover’s boss in custody.

Elise has invited them to her garden.

John takes Sherlock’s hand in the thorn, speaks the name of the shade in the hot sun, the rose so violet it’s almost black.

 

**Author's Note:**

> [ Ebb Tide rose](http://www.etsy.com/listing/123095059/ebb-tide-rose-plant-purple-fragrant-rose?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_listing_promoted&utm_campaign=plants_and_edibles_low&gclid=CP-6o9nLg7gCFdOe4AodInAAJg)
> 
>  
> 
> For more beautiful growing things:
> 
> [ Jude's roses](http://archiveofourown.org/series/43371)   
> [ ShinySherlock's water lilies](http://archiveofourown.org/works/848389)   
> [ SkaraBrae's fungi](http://archiveofourown.org/works/813013)


End file.
